glennbrown

I love the 805s.. They do need a serious amplifier to sound the best. The higher the damping factor the better.. As example: they sound pretty good with most McIntosh amps.. (damping factor is medium, runs between - 600 and 2000 depending) But pair those B&Ws with a serious Damped amp, Like the Crown Reference One or Two (damping factor is 30,000) and you will hear the difference immediately. Other highly damped amps would be: Pass Labs. Omega. And for lower budgets the Hafler Trans Nova series (9000 is the best one of these.) Another important consideration when choosing the B&W 800 series is room size.. Those 805s prefer a room that has pretty good volume and ratios. Glenn

Jim, I just wanted to add that all Royer ribbons are not the same, My favorite Royer is actually the re-issue of the Speiden Ribbon that David Royer licensed from Speiden. Royer calls this the SF1 and the stereo version The SF12. It is really a very nice Ribbon although extremely delicate and easy to damage. It has a very very thin ribbon and therefore has a very nice freq response and color. It sounds great on many things.. I was not so impressed with the Royer 121s and the active ribbons as much.. The 121 has an obvious rise in the low mids and darker mid tone overall a bit like the Beyer 160. It is a more robust ribbon and holds up a bit better if abused. I agree with you that the Coles or RCAs are very nice and will often win out in many situations. About That question about FM amplifiers... They are very expensive, Have very high Damping Factor and work great as a Large Main Soffit Mounted Speaker amp.. I heard some on The older Hidley Sierra Eastlake TM2 monitors in LA. I thought that amp sounded great on the Low Freq drivers.. Great Damping Factor that resulted in a very detailed and Tight, Punchy Lows. They are extremely expensive though..All those precision matched MosFets. Thanks for all your time and input on this Forum, Glenn Brown engineer/producer GBP Studios (home of the Muscle Shoals Neve 8068)

The Neve 8068 from Muscle Shoals is alive and kicking in East Lansing, Michigan at GBP Studios.. We are still keepin' it Rockin' and Greazy... Glenn Brown GBP Studios..

Here is a picture of the Muscle Shoals Neve 8068 at GBP Studios.. Glenn

The studio of the day would have tracked straight to disk using a horn transducer as a mic.. Check out some pictures of Gennett records (for example) www.radiodismuke.com/forum/index.php?act=Prin... Many of the early blues/jazz artists recorded at Gennett records in Richmond Indiana right next to the tracks.. Glenn Glenn Brown - engineer - producer gbp-studio-acoustics.com